THE BOYS' BOOK OF RAILROADS By IRVING CRUMP Editor of Boys' Life, The Boy Scouts Magazine and Author of " The Boys' Book of Firemen," "The Boys' Book of Policemen," etc. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1921 <©' COPYBIGHT, 1921 By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc. 4 / SEP 20 1921 ©CI.A622853 To "JIMMY" This Book is Affectionately Dedicated ACKNOWLEDGMENT One of the pleasures of writing this book has been the association I have had with scores of railroad men in various positions, from superin- tendent of a division and chief dispatcher down to the humble job of track walker. I want to make this an opportunity to express my ap- preciation to all of them for the assistance that they have given me in assembling many of the facts herein set forth. I am especially grateful for the interest and kindness of Mr. J. M. Condon, Superintendent of the New York Division of the Erie Eailroad, Mr. Thomas J. Kelly, Chief Dispatcher of the same Division, Mr. J. E. Ingling, Superintendent of Freight Service of the same road, and William Francis Hooker, also of the Erie Company and a genuine " Old Timer." During the time that I have been planning and writing this book I have frequently referred to several very helpful volumes on the subject of vii viii ACKNOWLEDGMENT railroads, and I should feel that I were very un- grateful if I did not express my sincerest appre- ciation of Edward Hungerford's " The Modern Kailroad" and "The Strategy of Great Kail- roads," by Frank H. Spearman, both of which I found tremendously interesting and of valuable assistance. I. C. Oradell, N. J. Y CONTENTS I Baw Material 1 II In the Cab 24 III With the Train Crew 50 I The Vigilance of the Station Agent 74 V Secret Service Stuff . 98 VI Operating the Eoad . 118 :VII The Man in the Tower 139 VTII In the Koundhouse 164 IX In the Freight Yard 180 X The Wrecking Train 194 XI Giants of the Line 215 XII The Division's King 238 XIII Bailroad History 254 IX ILLUSTRATIONS Engineer J. C. Crowley oiling the 5015 before it starts to push a train up the Erie's Susque- hanna Hill. This is one of the largest loco- motives in the world. The 5015 weighs 432 tons and has 24 drive-wheels j it has pushed 250 loaded cars in a test . Frontispiece PAGE The engineer is a very high type of railroad man. He must be, for to his care are entrusted hu- man lives and millions of dollars in property 36 The track walker is a trouble hunter, always searching for defects along the line. He walks a good many weary miles a day . 36 The man on top of the freight car can be presi- dent of the road some day .... 60 Slow freight but mighty important when a coal famine threatens a city 60 Changing rails between trains means hard work for the section gang 92 The station agent is a man of many responsibilities 92 When the wrecking crew gets busy. The wreck- ing train has just arrived and the powerful derrick has begun to pick the wreck to pieces, lifting heavy cars bodily back upon the tracks 122 An old type of switch tower where switches and signals are turned by hand .... 148 xi xii ILLUSTKATIONS Inside the Terminal Tower where electricity does everything except the thinking . 148 Bucking the drifts. A big snow plow forcing its way through drifts in an effort to keep the line open 210 A modern passenger locomotive. Contrast this with the proud "dinky " below . 258 A veteran of Civil War days, a real "flyer " of its time. f , , . 258 The Boys' Book of Railroads CHAPTEE I RAW MATERIAL "It's as true as anything ever was," said the veteran roundhouse foreman with a smile, " rail- road men seem to be railroad men from the very beginning,—from the time they are chaps in knee- breeches. It seems to be in their blood. It used to be when a boy grew up in Salem or Gloucester he knew and his parents knew that as soon as he got old enough to ship he'd become a sailor, a whaler or fisherman or something of the sort. It was the salt water. It just seemed to be in the blood. The boy couldn't see any- thing but the sea for a future. "It's just that way with railroading. The romance of it gets into a fellow's blood, seems like. From the very beginning it takes hold of you and almost before you know it you find your- — 2 THE BOYS' BOOK OF RAILROADS self just naturally gravitating toward the place where the shining steel rails and the trail of cross ties lead on, off into the distance, off to the other side of things you know, off to the places you yearn to go. That's the last step toward being a railroad man. Sooner or later you'll find your way into the railroad service in some job or another. After that it's like the sea once you've been associated with those big iron horses and the clanking of the rails has become music to your ears, you rarely get over it. Once a railroad man, always a railroad man—at least so it seems to me." The wise old foreman spat, wiped off his chin, and gazed off in the direction of a side track, where a dozen still giants, veritable mastodons, with steam roaring from their exhausts and black smoke billowing from their stacks, were be- ing cared for almost tenderly by the " hostlers," preparatory to their departure for their night's work on the division. " Yes, sir," he mused half to himself, " it's a mighty funny thing, but I guess we're all the same. It's the romance of the thing, the adven- ture and the pure love of it all that brings most — RAW MATERIAL 3 of us into the game and keeps us there. Why, some fellow not long ago—he was a mathematics sharp, I guess—figured out that one out of every dozen to fifteen men in the country was on the pay-roll of a railroad. It don't seem possible, does it, but then railroading is a great game. " And let me tell you," he raised his voice a little here and seemed to challenge contradic- tion, " the men who follow railroading don't fol- low it because they can't do anything else. I mean it is a very high type of man we get in rail- roading—not the plug-ugly, or the down and out. No, sirree, they wouldn't last a day. They wouldn't even get a chance at our game—they'd never get through the employment office. " Railroad men are the highest type of men you can find. To be sure they are big fellows as a rule, broad chested, two fisted, and men you couldn't back down on anything. But they are clean, clear-eyed, level-headed fellows with brains. I want to emphasize that to you, young man, they have brains and they are brains that have been trained to think quickly and clearly and to act with the best of judgment. Unless a man has a good set of machinery under his hat he ; 4 THE BOYS' BOOK OF EAILKOADS can't get very far railroading, and the better his machinery is the farther he can get along the line. The offices of superintendent, general manager and even president with a salary of fifteen to twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars a year or more, if he is worth it, are open to men who are climbing up from the line. They are the kind of men the directors want in official position, and there is many a big railroad man in office to-day who started firing or as call boy in a roundhouse. See that chap over there in jumpers and gloves, the one just climbing into the cab of No. 988, Mai Crawford, that's who he is. Young fellow, isn't he, to be an engineer? But Mai's the best we've got around here. He's too good for his job even now at his age and the bosses all know it. He's slated for a bigger job—a lot bigger job. Wouldn't be at all sur- prised to see him superintendent of this division in a year or two, and he won't stop there. He'll go higher. " Say," he seemed to be inspired, " Mai's the very man for you. If you want to know how a fellow gets to be a railroad man get hold of him get his story and you'll know what I mean when RAW MATERIAL 5 I say it is the romance of railroading that gets into our blood and just won't let us get very far from the sound of a locomotive whistle." The veteran roundhouse foreman's suggestion was a good one and I hurried over to the cab of No. 988 to get a word with Engineer Mai Craw- ford, before he began to ease his big steel horse out onto that network of track of the terminal yard. He smiled when I told him what I wanted. Would he tell me his story? Sure, if it was worth while he'd tell me all about it some time when he got a chance.